January 8, 2016
CapitalPress.com
17
Idaho poised for solar energy surge
By JOHN O’CONNELL
Capital Press
AMERICAN FALLS, Ida-
ho — Renewable energy de-
velopers say Idaho is poised
to experience a short-lived
solar energy boom, with the
state’s first commercial solar
power projects approved for
construction in 2016.
Developers say solar tech-
nology has finally come of
age in Idaho — resulting in
a shift away from wind tur-
bines in their renewable-en-
ergy project applications
— thanks to a roughly two-
thirds decline in the price of
the technology during the
past five years and a change
in state policy reflecting the
greater value of power pro-
duced when a utility needs
it most. Unlike wind pow-
er, solar production tends to
peak on hot summer days,
when power plants are also
strapped to meet demands of
irrigators.
Farmers and ranchers who
own land where the solar
panels are planned will ben-
Courtesy of SunEdison
This 25-megawatt solar power project near Tucson, Ariz., was
constructed by SunEdison, which is planning a four solar projects
in Idaho totaling 100 megawatts in 2016. Renewable-energy devel-
opers are shifting from wind projects to solar in Idaho, but they say
a policy change that occurred in Idaho last summer will make the
state’s solar energy boom short-lived.
efit from steady, new income
from renewable-energy com-
panies.
In Power County, growers
Jerome Clinger and Conrad
Isaak will lease 400 acres of
prime farm ground to SunE-
dison, one of the world’s
largest
renewable-energy
developers, for construction
of a 40-megawatt solar farm.
Work should begin next
spring, and the facility will
tie into an existing 130-kilo-
volt line that passes through
the property.
“I’ve always had power
poles cross my place, but this
is the first time I’ve ever been
pretty excited about them,”
Clinger said.
On the other hand, well ir-
rigators represented by Idaho
Ground Water Appropriators,
Inc., note investor-owned util-
ities are forced under the fed-
eral Public Utility Regulatory
Policies Act to buy qualifying
renewable energy, even when
it’s unneeded and more costly
to produce. PURPA assigns
states to set contract proce-
dures and pricing methodol-
ogies.
“Those folks who have
(solar panels) in their spud
fields will reap a benefit from
that, but it’s all the rate payers
who will pick up the addition-
al cost,” said IGWA Executive
Director Lynn Tominaga.
Though ground hasn’t bro-
ken on the state’s first solar
farms, new applications for
PURPA contracts with Idaho
Power have mostly shifted to
the company’s Oregon terri-
tory, due to an Idaho policy
change.
Idaho’s nine solar con-
tracts approved with Idaho
Power for 2016 construction,
representing 260 megawatts
of energy, were ratified pri-
or to Aug. 20, 2015. On that
date, the state shortened the
maximum duration Idaho
utilities are required to con-
tract for PURPA solar and
wind projects above 100
kilowatts from 20 years to
two years.
SunEdison plans to add
100 megawatts of solar en-
ergy to Idaho Power’s grid in
2016, all under 20-year con-
tracts, with additional projects
approved for Elmore, Ada and
Owyhee counties.
“We’d like to invest further
in Idaho, but we’re not going
to be able to build a project
on a two-year contract,” said
Ben Fairbanks, SunEdison’s
development manager for the
Northwest.
All 15 PURPA solar proj-
ects approved with Idaho
U.S. Wheat applauds WTO end to export subsidies
By MATTHEW WEAVER
Capital Press
The World Trade Organi-
zation’s recent move to eventu-
ally eliminate export subsidies
will benefit U.S. wheat farm-
ers, according to U.S. Wheat
Associates, but a spokesman
for the organization says the
temporary reauthorization of
processing and transport subsi-
dies remains a concern.
The WTO is eliminating
export subsidy authority imme-
diately for developed countries
and by the end of 2018 for de-
veloping countries.
The WTO previously
banned export subsidies for in-
dustrial goods, but many mem-
ber countries were still autho-
rized to subsidize agricultural
exports.
The effect won’t be immedi-
ate for U.S. wheat farmers, but
the WTO’s decision sets a good
precedent for the world wheat
trade, said Steve Mercer, vice
president of communications
for U.S. Wheat Associates.
“This is a step forward to-
ward a more fair treatment for
everyone,” Mercer said.
Countries such as China,
India and Brazil have been
subsidizing above WTO limits,
Mercer said.
U.S. Wheat supports a level
playing field for trade.
“To be able to compete on
the basis of quality, value and
price is clearly a desired level
for us,” Mercer said. “We’re
rarely the least expensive wheat
in the world, so we need to have
that price a little more compet-
itive.”
The WTO’s ministerial con-
ference in Nairobi reauthorized
developing and least developed
countries’ use of processing
and transport subsidies for ag-
ricultural products, after let-
ting them lapse in 2004. Even
though the reauthorization is
limited and temporary, U.S.
Wheat considers it a step back-
ward for agricultural trade.
“In the case of a country like
India that is way above its to-
tal subsidy limit under WTO,
it seems off-kilter to be put-
ting this authorization back in
place,” Mercer said.
Reauthorization may have
been a bargaining chip in the
course of negotiations, he
said.
Each country has a lim-
it for spending on domestic
support for production, plus
leeway on domestic support
programs, Mercer said.
“The more leeway you
give, the more likely that sub-
sidy is to create distortions
to the marketplace,” he said.
“It’s that search for equity and
fairness we feel we need.”
New wheat buyer
After boom years, California
enters Idaho market strawberry production slips
By JOHN O’CONNELL
By TIM HEARDEN
Capital Press
Capital Press
SHELLEY, Idaho — A
Northern Utah company has
started buying wheat from
growers in Eastern and Central
Idaho, and its owners plan to
significantly step up Idaho grain
contracting in 2016.
Diversified Ag Marketing
has purchased about 1 million
bushels of Idaho’s 2015 wheat
crop and is still buying more,
doing business as far north as
Ashton and west into the Magic
Valley, said Clark Johnson, an
owner from Ogden, Utah. John-
son anticipates the company will
purchase more than 2 million
bushels of 2016 crop.
Diversified has offices in
Fielding, Utah, and Shelley, Ida-
ho. The company started a little
more than two years ago, initial-
ly making wheat purchases only
in Utah before expanding into
Idaho in 2015.
“We started working with a
few growers in the Idaho Falls
and Blackfoot areas,” Johnson
said. “Now we’re actually going
out and contacting growers.”
Shelley farmer Scott Searle
and his brother Bryan, who was
recently elected president of
Idaho Farm Bureau Federation,
and BoDee Udy, of Tremonton,
Utah, are also Diversified own-
ers.
Bryan Searle said he’s long
believed additional competition
for grain would be good for the
area’s producers.
“I’ve always been big on
finding other options,” Bryan
Searle said.
Searle helped secure an
agreement with CHS and Bing-
ham Cooperative to transport
the grain, so profits derived
from transportation are returned
to grower members.
Scott Searle explained grow-
ers also avoid trips to their local
grain elevators by working with
Diversified, which sends trucks
to a farmer’s grain bin and trans-
ports the wheat directly to Og-
den flour mills. Wheat milled in
Ogden is sold on the domestic
market.
“By bypassing the elevator,
they save anywhere from 10
to 30 cents (per bushel),” Scott
Searle estimated. “Every penny
is critical to (growers) at this
point.”
Johnson said milling cus-
tomers are often willing to pay
a premium for grain that meets
John O’Connell/Capital Press
CHS driver Richard Wilson
waits Jan. 5 while a truck is
loaded with wheat, picked up
directly from a Firth, Idaho,
grower’s storage for transport
to mills in Northern Utah. The
buyer, Diversified Ag Marketing,
based in Utah, entered the
Idaho grain market after the
2015 harvest.
their highly specialized parame-
ters. He said Diversified strives
to test grower samples until it
finds a close match for a given
customer’s needs, returning up
to a quarter per bushel extra to
the farmer.
“They’ll say, we need hard
red winter wheat, 9 percent
moisture, 60-pound test weight
and 10.5 percent protein, and
we’ll find 10,000 bushels,”
Johnson said, offering an exam-
ple.
Cathy Wilson, research
collaboration director with the
Idaho Wheat Commission, said
some of the industry’s larger
buyers aren’t set up to profit-
ably handle smaller orders, and
Diversified may fill an import-
ant niche. Wilson also believes
many growers will appreciate
the savings of having grain
picked up directly from the
farm.
Wilson said the regional
wheat market is becoming more
sophisticated, also considering
recent investments by larger
buyers such as Lansing Trade
Group and Thresher Artisan
Wheat.
“With more points to sell
their wheat, it should give
growers the ability to figure out
where’s the best deal for them,
and they’re not just stuck with
one outlet for their crop,” Wil-
son said.
Diversified declares Idaho as
the point of sale for all of its
Idaho grain, subjecting it to a
3.5-cents-per-bushel assess-
ment paid to the Idaho Wheat
Commission.
WATSONVILLE, Calif.
— After almost a decade of
record or near-record produc-
tion, California’s strawber-
ry industry is experiencing
something unfamiliar — a pe-
riod of modest decline.
After seven record-setting
seasons in eight years from
2006 to 2013, production in
2015 likely declined slightly
for the second straight year,
as the 189.7 million trays har-
vested statewide as of Dec. 19
was well below the 2014 total
of nearly 192 million trays,
according to the California
Strawberry Commission.
Growers have told the com-
mission they’ll plant 32,515
acres in 2016 — a sizable drop
from the 37,438 estimated
acres last year and continu-
ing a trend of annual declines
from the 40,816 acres planted
in 2013.
“The demand is still strong,
but production costs continue to
rise and regulatory constraints
are continuing to rise,” com-
mission spokeswoman Carolyn
O’Donnell said. “Strawberry
farmers rotate every year. I’m
sure that land isn’t out of pro-
duction (permanently).
“In the meantime, straw-
berry farmers are investing
in a lot of research into new
strawberry varieties … and
into farming without fumi-
gants,” she said.
New varieties with higher
yields have helped growers
keep up with demand de-
spite the acreage declines in
recent years. In 2015, pick-
ers kept pace with the previ-
ous two seasons for much of
the year and even exceeded
them as late as October, but
the storms of late fall and
early winter caused a drop-
off in production.
As of Jan. 5, Salinas has
recorded 4.92 inches of rain
since the water year started
Oct. 1, exceeding its average
of 4.22 inches for the peri-
od, according to the Nation-
al Weather Service. Storms
can complicate strawber-
ry harvest, as the rain can
cause ripe berries to become
moldy and waterlogged.
“Anytime there’s rain,
farmers are happy,” O’Don-
nell said. “They know that
Courtesy UC Regents
Farmworkers pick strawberries in a field on California’s Central
Coast. Strawberry production declined slightly again in 2015,
according to the California Strawberry Commission.
rain is a temporary setback
compared to not having wa-
ter to irrigate, which is a lon-
ger-term concern.”
Still, this year’s signifi-
cant acreage decline serves
as a reminder that life in
the strawberry industry
isn’t getting any easier as
drought has caused irriga-
tion cutbacks in the south-
ern growing regions and as
fumigants such as chloro-
picrin and Telone are facing
increased scrutiny. Meth-
yl bromide, the industry’s
old stand-by for combat-
ting soil-borne diseases, is
expected to be phased out
completely by the industry
this year.
To address these chal-
lenges, growers will con-
tinue to invest in a variety
of research and education
programs, the commission
noted in its annual acreage
report. They will include
development of more new
varieties, researching al-
ternatives to fumigants and
training farmers and work-
ers in water efficiency and
food safety, according to the
report.
The commission notes
that California is still the
world’s leading strawber-
ry-producing region and is
expected to supply more
than 79 percent of the vol-
ume consumed in the U.S.
Power since Aug. 20, totaling
129 megawatts, will be built
in Oregon, where the PURPA
contract length remains 20
years, though Idaho Power of-
ficials say companies are still
expressing interest in further
Idaho development.
Another 50 megawatts of
new wind power, planned for
sale to Idaho Power, has been
approved for construction in
Oregon.
A case is pending, howev-
er, to align Oregon’s PURPA
contract length and proce-
dures with Idaho’s.
Michael Darrington, senior
energy coordinator with Idaho
Power, said Idaho Power’s
2015 resource plan estimates
the company won’t need ad-
ditional power resources until
July of 2024, and adding re-
sources prior to then presents
unnecessary costs for custom-
ers.
Fairbanks said federal tax
credits for renewable energy
were recently extended for
five years, so renewable proj-
ects should still be viable in
states with favorable laws.
Expert: Feed
monitoring
essential
on cattle
operations
By CAROL RYAN DUMAS
Capital Press
JEROME, Idaho — Wheth-
er feed is grown on the operation
or sourced elsewhere, it needs
to be tracked, tested and stored
properly to maintain its quality
and safety.
Feed cost is the largest sin-
gle expense in a cattle operation
and demands attention, Cassia
County Extension Educator Joel
Packham told cattle producers
attending the recent Magic Val-
ley Beef Extension School.
If the feed is grown on the
farm, producers need to keep re-
cords of pesticide and herbicide
use to prevent “violative” resi-
dues from getting into the beef,
he said.
Avoiding violative residues
also comes into play when feed-
ing byproducts — which should
be supported by sound science
— and medications, which re-
quire withdrawal times, he said.
Monitoring incoming feed
starts with inspecting the deliv-
ery truck, paying attention to
anything surprising, such as res-
idue from past loads. Producers
should check product for color,
odor, moisture, temperature, for-
eign matter and bird or rat fecal
contamination, he said.
“You have to look at it and
make sure it’s as good as can be.
If the supply company conducts
quality tests, request records,”
he said.
Producers should also set up
their own sampling program to
test for quality specifications,
taking five to 10 samples in dif-
ferent spots from each batch of
purchased feed. Those samples
should be labeled and stored
properly in case a suspected
feed-related issue arises, he said.
Forage samples, using coring
implements if possible, should
also be taken and stored, he said.
Proper on-farm storage is
also important, he said.
“Don’t store chemicals and
petroleum products or any haz-
ardous material with hay or fee
(and) avoid using feed-handling
equipment for multi purposes,”
he said.
No vehicles other than feed
handling equipment should
be driven into silage pits, and
equipment should never be
shared between the feed and
manure pile, he said.
If feed handling equipment
must be used for different pur-
poses, it needs to be properly
cleaned and disinfected before
using it for feed, he said.
Equipment used for feed
should be kept clean. Particu-
lar attention should be paid to
augers, where particles can get
lodged. Excess feed should be
removed from feed trucks and
the trucks should be sterilized
between jobs, he said.
Facilities should be kept
dry and clean, and feed should
be stored to prevent any risk of
contamination, he said.